The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-05-05
REAGAN.
Argum ent Of Judge Reeves in the
Tribune Against Prohi-
bltlon.
A Logical and Political Dissection
of Senator Reagan's Prohi-
bition Fallacies.

In making his departure from that of q
wise and considerate craftsmanship, to
the level of reactionary and repressive
policy, Judge Reagan, of Texas, has de-
veloped a sentimentality which clearly
overpowers his judgment. He is man
possessed of large and generous heart
and of fine abilities, but he has more SEN
timent than craftsmanship. The san
guine- bilious temperament predominates
in his organism, with the nervous anG
some of the phlegmatic temperaments il
smaller degree of development. He il
man of large frame and full develop
ment of the chronological organs, belong
ing to the coronal or top regions of thu
head, save that of the organ of hope. Hit
is, therefore, essentially a man of senti
ment rather than of will power. His
whole mind is pervaded with degree OF
sympathetic dependency. Since his
birth he has been tossed about on a
stormy sea of life, and living in a time
when society is pregnant with universal
political transactions which are destined
to set all theories of government, religion
and civilization at risk, and Subject to
new generalization" Judge Reagan
cannot, therefore, do otherwise than advo-
cate measures for destruction, rather than
of mild and good government. He would
destroy the whole to cure part.
In the midst of a clamor of misguided
men, who were trampling upon the laws
of the land, in the force of an organized
mob, Judge Reagan thought he could
hear the the voice of the poor remon-
strating against the oppressions of wealth
and power, as Moses heard the voice of
God out of the burning bush. Over
flowing with sentiment he urged legisla-
ton against the best principles and poll
cies governing transportation interests,
in the hope that shallow political quack-
cry would cure incidental wrongs COM
mitted in the conduct of vast system of
industry.
Being stimulated with growing senti,
mentality, Judge Reagan issues a mani
festo to the people of Texas, in favor OF
the policy of prohibition, it being ad-
dressed to COMMITTEE" of gentlemen
at Dallas, and under date of the 18th OF
April, 1887. 1t will be observed that the
communication was written subsequent
to his election to the United States SEN
ate, but that incident may be of tr1fiug
consequence. In that letter his senti,
mentality so far overshadows high order
of Judgment and craftsmanship, that
he can see no means by which poverty,
from intemperance, can be prevented, ex-
cept by legislating out of existence a
large proportion of the industrial and
commercial interests of the country, and
thereby contracting the wide avenues of
industry and commerce which now afford
employment to many hundreds of thou
sands of our population, and, at the same
time abridging the social andpolitical right
of far greater number of the people who
are in no way responsible for the misde.
meanors of their neighbors. The surren-
der of certain individual rights for the
benefit of the body polite, and the main
tenance of government, and other vital
needs, is we'll established principle Of
community and independence, and its
limit is clearly defined in the fundamental
law of the land. The Magna-Charta was
successful protest against the aggres-
sions of central power, and in defence
of the manhood, the home and the liberty
of the people. Our constitution limits
official authority to special objects OF
government, and preserves the home as a
fortress of freedom. If Judge Reagan
has been faithful political disciple OF
Jefferson, as he claims to have been; why
has he departed from the plain teachings
and acknowledged principles of home rule
and local self-government?
Simply, sentimentally, and, in
nocently enough, the distin,
guished senator deprecates the
agitation of the question OF prohibition,
because of the danger of a disruption, but
urges action upon the subject by the legis-
lature, and seemingly fears no danger as
threatening the state. He does not clas-
sify prohibition as being embraced in his
list of sumptuary laws, and hence pro-
vides the assumption that Jefferson would
have sustained this fragrant invasion of
liberty.
Judge Reagan should give a larger con-
sideration to the fact, that the PROPOSE
tions of domestic life, with their mani
fold entailed methods and abridgements,
do not determine what may be drunk,
eaten, or digested. 1t is the agitation
and advancement of false ideas of gov
eminent, and of oppressive legislation,
which were only the outgrowths of preju-
dice, bigotry and superstition, that made
a Quaker and Baptist worse than New
England rum. II is useless to follow the
analogy to its logical sequence, because
at the bottom of all the aggressions upon
the inalienable rights of humankind, are
a class ot demagOgues or tyrants. They
rise in community, like sourness in the
stomach, to challenge comfort, health and
happiness, and the best relief can be OBJ
taiued by vigorous purgative.
1t is not needed to rehearse the oppres-
sions and sumptuary legislation of 1000
years to remind Judge Reagan that Jeffer-
sonian democracy was inimical to the
prejudice that hid Bibles in the meal
chests of New England, during his admin
istratlon of the government, from a fear
that his advocacy of allowing the people
to worship God as they might deem
proper would result in total destruction
of the scriptures. Jefferson loved liberty
and hated oppression, and was therefore
trenuously opposed to special or class
legislation. So, too, if Judge Reagan had
been student of Alexander Hamilton, as
well as of Jefferson, he would be aware of
the fact that good government does not
grow out of sentiment, but out of the will
power of the mind, and that in no way is
government The whim of fanaticism. Two
years ago Judge Reagan was also pro-
nounced in his defense of the same broad
and liberal principles, but to-day he is
radical and inexorable in his expressions
A. - la0iaIotion ic nanaasarv IN nrofact IN &